Apparently, Australia is the place to bootstrap a crowdsourced design service. The country was home base for DesignCrowd and 99designs, two online marketplaces for graphic designers. But both companies have global ambitions.

GuestWhile everyone is fretting over the Asian slowdown, the European debt crisis, and the fiscal cliff, a few entrepreneurs in Latin America are rapidly building businesses in their home countries and beyond.

99designs, the crowdsourced design marketplace “real” designers love to hate, has acquired 12designer, the Berlin-based crowdsourced design marketplace that had become 99designs’ number-one rival in the European market.

If you can’t code but aspire to start a Web business, odds are you feel just like the ostrich. Ostriches can’t fly, and to add insult to injury, they’re one of the largest bird species out there. They have to hobble around looking for something to do while their avian counterparts swoop into the air in boundless directions.